Political donor: Labor’s lobster plan was mine, but minister botched it

One of the state's biggest political donors and tourism operators claimed credit for the state government's failed attempt to increase WA's lobster catch during a meeting in Perth in January.

At the meeting, which took place at the height of a public controversy over the lobster plan, Greg Poland, who was the Peel Development Commission's deputy chairman until he resigned this week, said Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly botched its implementation because he wanted the government to own the extra lobster quota.

Greg Poland backed away from claims he engineered the WA government's western rock lobster plan following questions raised by WAtoday.

Mr Poland, who is chairman of Strzelecki Group which owns Sorrento Quay at Hillary's Boat Harbour, Dolphin Quay apartments, The Moorings and the Oceanic Retreat apartments as well as seafood processing and packaging plants and restaurants, was at a meeting when talk turned to Mr Kelly's controversial lobster plan

Mr Poland, who has since backed away from claims made during the meeting, said the government's plan was about providing lobsters to the tourism industry, which was attempting to attract more visitors from China.

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He said no one cared about the fishermen and the plan was about jobs in the tourism industry.

He said in the meeting he wrote the original proposal to increase the lobster quota for the tourism industry, and had met with Mr Kelly about the plan.

But Mr Poland was critical of Mr Kelly, who he said changed the plan.

Mr Poland said the government was panicked and claimed Premier Mark McGowan had given Mr Kelly a week to sort out the issues surrounding the policy or it would be canned.

At one point during the meeting, one of the participants referred to a proposal from a majority Aboriginal-owned joint venture to access some of the extra lobster quota as part of Mr Kelly’s proposal.

Mr Poland said the lobster plan was not about Aboriginal people or fishermen, but about the tourism industry.

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Before abandoning its plan to hand itself a 17 per cent commercial stake in the state's rock lobster fishery, the government defended the policy by arguing locals, as well as visitors, would have access to cheaper product.

"With nearly all of our local lobster going to China, the McGowan Government wants to see more Western Australian lobster made available for Western Australians," Mr Kelly said in December.

"WA's unique lobster should be a staple item on the menu of restaurants across our state.

"Western Australians should be able to enjoy our lobster, but we also want to make sure visitors to our State can experience eating our lobster right here in WA."

When questioned about his involvement in the Fisheries Minister’s plan for western rock lobsters, Mr Poland, through a letter sent via his lawyer, told WAtoday he had met with Mr Kelly to “put forth a request for a domestic only lobster licence for approximately 40 to 50 pots to cater for the need for affordable lobsters within tourist precincts in Western Australia”.

“My client received no response to this proposal and in fact considered that his proposal had been rejected,” Mr Poland’s lawyer said.

“Later in the year, the quota policy was released by the Honourable Minister.

“After the announcement, my client sent [a letter], commenting on what he thought the issues were with the policy.

“It is clear from the letter Mr Poland did not have any influence or hand in the policy as it was announced as he suggested how he in fact would have done it differently.”

“Having read the announcement, I would like to make the following comments,” Mr Poland wrote.

“I strongly believe that if the extra quota of 1385 tonnes had been issued without the domestic restriction, most of the exporters would have jumped on the opportunity and laughed all the way to the bank!

“They are just annoyed that this quota is for the domestic market only and they cannot get the higher export price.”

Mr Poland said claims by some processors that selling lobster cheaper on the local market would affect their overall profitability was “absolute rubbish”.

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“To think that the export price has any bearing on the local price is pure fabrication,” Mr Poland wrote.

“The Chinese will negotiate the ‘buy price’ and that is the export price.”

Mr Poland’s letter continued by claiming the negative response in reaction to Mr Kelly’s original lobster plan confirmed “exporters care only about profit and not the local market”.

In response to questions put to the Fisheries Minister about Mr Poland’s involvement in the western rock lobster plan, Mr Kelly said Mr Poland was not the “engineer” of the plan, which he said was developed between the government and the Western Rock Lobster Council during weeks of negotiations.

“In August 2018, Mr Poland wrote me an unsolicited letter requesting two new lobster licences to supply his restaurants,” Mr Kelly said.

“He did not propose any new plan for the industry. It wasn’t until 1 November 2018 that I met with him to discuss his letter. By this stage our plans were well advanced, with the first meeting with the Western Rock Lobster Council already scheduled for the following day on the 2 November 2018. At the 1 November 2018 meeting the government’s plans were not discussed.”

Mr Kelly said the November 1 meeting was the only one he’d had with Mr Poland, apart from an aquaculture consortium Mr Poland attended with others held in August 2017 where “lobster was not discussed”.

“Mr Poland is not a member, and has not been asked to be a member, of any working group regarding Western Rock Lobster,” he said.